x hundred years. The dangers to which the city was
exposed from time to time were formidable. They came chiefly from two
quarters--from Bohemia and from Hungaro-Turkey. Charles IV. and Wenzel
favored the Bohemians at the expense of the Germans, and preferred
Prague to Vienna as a residence. The Czechish nation increased rapidly
in wealth and culture until, having embraced the doctrines of Huss, it
felt itself strong enough to assert a quasi-independence. The Hussite
wars which ensued in the fifteenth century ended in the downfall of
Bohemia. But the Austrian duchies, and even Bavaria and Saxony,
did not escape without cruel injuries. More than once the fanatic
Taborites laid the land waste up to the gates of Vienna. The
Reformation, a century later, did not take deep root in Austria. At
best it was only tolerated, and the Jesuit reaction, encouraged by
Rudolph II. and Matthias, made short work of it. The Thirty Years' war
gave Ferdinand II. an opportunity of restoring Bohemia to the Roman
Catholic communion. The victory of the White Hill (1620) prostrated
Bohemia at his feet: the Hussite preachers were executed or banished,
the estates of the nobility who had taken part in the rebellion were
confiscated, and the Catholic worship reinstated by force of arms. So
thoroughly was the work done that Bohemia at the present day is, next
to the Tyrol, the stronghold of Catholicism. But Ferdinand's success,
complete to outward appearance, was in reality a blunder. The Czechish
and the German nationalities were permanently estranged, and the
former, despoiled, degraded, incapacitated for joining the work of
reform upon which the latter has finally entered, now constitutes
an obstacle to progress. While the Austrian duchies are at present
extremely liberal in their religious and political tendencies, Bohemia
and Polish Galicia are confederated with the Tyrol in opposing every
measure that savors of liberalism. Bohemia has been surnamed the
Ireland of the Austrian crown.

The union of Hungary with the house of Habsburg has always been
personal rather than constitutional. The Hungarians claimed
independence in all municipal and purely administrative matters.
Moreover, during the Thirty Years' war, and even later, a large
portion of the land was in possession of the Turks and their allies,
the Transylvanians, with whom the Hungarians were in sympathy. The
first great siege of Vienna by the Turks was in 1529--the last, and
by far the